Central City Opera performs in an intimate, 550-seat house built in The Central City Opera House was built in 1878. (Central City Opera).

Kudos to Central City Opera. Capitalizing on the attention surrounding last weekend’s launch of this summer’s season, the venerable company announced the schedule for 2011. And put simply, it’s terrific.

Plugging into the rising popularity of the baroque operas of George Frideric Handel, Central City presented one of the famed composer’s best-known such works in the form in 2009 — “Rinaldo.” In 2011, the company will try to top that success with the first-ever fully staged production in North America of Handel’s “Amadigi di Gaula.” As surprising as it might sound, many baroque operas, including even some by such heavy-hitters as Handel, fell into obscurity and never crossed Atlantic Ocean. Only in recent decades have many finally received their long-overdue debuts here.

A trend that is starting to take hold in the classical world is altering formats. The basic idea is that contemporary audiences don’t always want music served up the same way it has been for decades. So, Central City is trying something wonderfully innovative.